Rinata

My friend and I came here during restaurant week for the $ 30 tapas menu and I don’t think I’ve been this happy with small portions since well… ever?
We had 8:30 reservations and after about a 15 minute wait we were seated in a cozy corner table by the front window. The romantic ambiance was definitely prevalent, and had me wishing my friend was instead a dapper, wavy haired young man in a sweater set who was romancing me with a night of great food.
We decided to order different things and then split our plates so we could try all the different options (which I highly recommend). I won’t regale you with thoughts on all 8 dishes but some of my faves include: the mushrooms w meatballs, the beef brisket with gnocchi, and the pistachio gelato. And, of course, the standard bread basket which came with not only came with olive oil but tapenade! FANCY!
The service was excellent, and the food came out pretty fast once we sat down. I would definitely return here, and until I do, those mushrooms will haunt my dreams.

The food was amazing no complaints there, however the service was horrible only 1 server! And because of that was left drink less.

This place is genuine Italian food and it is so delicious! The menu changes frequently so I never get bored — service is great — half price bottles of wine on Mondays and Tuesday. What more could you want? :) Pizza is particularly amazing!

I went to Rinata for their Sunday date night deal. Four courses for $ 20 which is damn good. The service was very good and I love the atmosphere. It was cozy but felt upscale. Very intimate.
The food was alright. Minneapolis has so many restaurants with amazing cuisine so the competition is tough. We got olives and artichoke/​goat cheese bruschetta for the first course. Goat cheese should be paired with something sweet or acidic so the flavor of the bruschetta was off. Second course was Caesar salad and mixed green salad with beets. Both were very good but not mind blowing. Then came the main course. We got an ink pasta with shrimp, capers, olives, and a bucatini and red sauce. The ink pasta was alright but a bit off. The bucatini was FANTASTIC. Best I have had. We finished off the meal with espresso gelato and tiramisu. Both excellent, particularly the tiramisu.
I struggled between giving this restaurant a 3 or 4 but between the service, bucatini, and tiramisu I had to give it a 4.

One of my favorite restaurants in the Twin Cities! Warm, cozy, and homemade Italian. Seasonal menu. Half price wine. Friendly staff. I’ve become a regular and they greet me personally. Almost hate to share how much I love this place. Right now I can walk in and always find a seat in the bar area.

Best meat balls that I have ever tasted. Small and cozy place, good service and good food.

What a terrible meal! Started with the Anipasti of Feta and olives. So salty it was inedible. We told the waitress and her response was «well at least you tried it!» Went on to golden beet and arugula salad with goat cheese pretty sure there were some bits of beets and goat cheese under to huge mound of arugula. I had to remove ²⁄₃ of it before it looked like a salad instead of a plate onto which they dumped an entire package of arugula. Husband had sausage pizza which again was so heavily covered in green chopped herbs it smothered the flavor of anything else. Homemade sausage was ok. All in all one of the worst meals we have had in uptown. AVOID!

This is, by far, the best Italian food I have had outside of Italy. The squash ravioli blew my mind– I couldn’t savor each bite enough! My boyfriend had the spicy pasta, which was also fantastic!!! The aesthetic is great; but it is a bit cramped. We made reservations so it wasn’t an issue on getting in. I recommend doing that. Considering the prices, the plates are a bit small– but that’s just not something I’m used to in the USA! The wine list is good but a bit more expensive than it’s worth. I’d absolutely go again, and get extra gelato for dessert!

The food was fantastic. Wait staff was very accommodating. It was happy hour so we got a bottle of wine that tasted decent for $ 20. Definitely going again — highly recommended.

It was late and I was craving some delicious pasta. Specifically Fettuccini Alfredo. I was bummed that they didn’t have any white sauce pastas but only meat sauce ragus. I decided to order the bucatini pasta dish which includes pancetta as the protein in it.
The bucatini noodles were very al dente. I took a bite and I could still see the white part of the uncooked noodle. The sauce was a bit salty but I can only guess that was from the pancetta. I had to send the dish back to be cooked new noodles.
I didn’t finish all of my food.
One of the people I was with ordered the fettuccini clam dish and her noodles were hard as well.
If you’re thinking about getting any of the pasta, I would ask them to cook it longer so you don’t have to waste time waiting for the meal again. I probably won’t come back since I can probably make better pasta at home.

One of the best authentic Italian restaurants in town, nothing is less than super delicious plus the service is superb.
Amor is favoloso… and so the rest of the staff
A great first date joint…

went here for my husbands birthday back in April. the food was delicious. We have not been back but I really enjoyed the experience. Highly recommended.

Amazing! Went on a Saturday night at 9pm… quiet, quaint, and probably the best pasta I’ve ever had! We sat at the bar and had a late, leisurely meal. The service was awesome and the drinks (aperol spritzer) to die for. Will not disappoint…

Wonderful dinner. Pasta was fresh and sauce just right. Spouse had Margarita pizza with sausage and crust snapped like a cracker just like Italy. Molto bene!

I came here for restaurant week because their tasting menu looked amazing for a great price. We got four courses for $ 30. They also have half off bottles of wine on Tuesdays, so that was a pleasant surprise to accompany our meal. The meal was awesome and ended with homemade gelato. I could eat that gelato for every meal. Needless to say, the whole meal was great. The service was a little slow and the restaurant is very small. You definitely will want to make reservations. I would come back though to try their regular menu.

Best pizza I’ve had in a very long time. It’s perfectly proportional (cheese, sauce, and crust), very thin, and crispy. Better pizza that actual pizza restaurants!
Everything was homemade– bread, tapenade dipping sauce, pasta and sauce, etc. I had the ravioli with sweet corn filling, pests sauce with lobster, so incredible. We will definitely come eat here again!

We’ve been here twice — first time was over a year ago and the second time was on Friday night. The place is cute, I like the atmosphere. There is parking in the back which is really nice in the city.
We had a reservation and were seated right when we got there. Service was friendly, helpful and prompt. Ordered a bottle of wine based on the server’s recommendation — she was spot on, it was perfect. Started with beef carpaccio — good but not amazing. I had the ravioli with lobster, husband had ricotta gnocchi with lamb meatballs. Both dishes were very good. Portions were perfect — finished all dishes and were comfortable but not stuffed.
As a little extra — I love their bread with tapenade. It is super good.
One negative — we sat by the front window and the room got roastign hot as our meal went on. Our server came and closed the blinds, but man it was hot in there. One other table moved to another room, must have been because it was so hot. We were almost done with our meal so we just toughed it out.

Rinata is a very unassuming restaurant, hidden in plain sight among the awning lined Hennepin Ave corridor. Once inside, it’s easy to forget where you are. Quiet, subtly lit and comfortable for a casual dinner or date night.
We sat at the bar which matches the overall atmosphere of the restaurant and started with some drinks, smoked salmon bruschetta and the caesar. The drinks were done right. The Caesar is very garlicky which is a pro for me but may turn off others. The bruschetta was great with the right amount of smoke on the salmon.
Normally I’d order something a little more adventurous as the menu had some great options, but I decided to go with the spaghetti with meatballs and my date had… umm…another pasta. Damn. I can’t remember what it was and it’s not currently on the menu. Both good — but we both agreed that the spaghetti was the winner. Great pasta, sauce and seasoning in the right proportions. The meatball was super moist and tender, not a bowling ball like some. Why do some people freak out about the word «moist»? It’s a harmless adjective with few useful synonyms. I don’t want a wet meatball, I want it moist. MOIST MOIST MOIST. Get over it.
Continuing on… because clearly we hadn’t eaten enough yet, we got the molten chocolate cake. Ugh. We went home and… nope…we just passed out immediately. I may have skipped bfast in the morning.
Tip: They have a little parking lot in the back.
I gotta come back for that gnocchi with lamb meatballs & English peas.

A. Maz. Ing.
We went 2 for 3 on the menu. Spaghetti and meatballs was great; margarita pizza was great; but the ravioli with English peas were a bit bland. Pasta was perfect, but less flavorful.
Service was smiley. And happy.
Atmosphere is close. Crowded a bit. But surprisingly quiet for a Friday night.

My boyfriend and I were craving Italian food and ended up at Rinata. We were pleased from the moment that we walked in until the moment that we left.
The food is incredible. I would recommend the Bulgarian feta with olives and peppers and the cauliflower, capers and mustard pizza.
The atmosphere was wonderful and the wine list was great!
We will definitely be coming back!

Does anyone remember Giorgio’s? Cause it’s fading quick. Been going here for a couple years now. Food is always on point. Even the margherita flat breads are spot on. Their bread is great too. The dishes were all delicious from the basic spaghetti with meatball to the more complicated dishes like the Bucatini or Fettuccine. They dont suffer from the over-​saucing of some italian restaurants in the cities and its a great romantic atmosphere without breaking the bank. $ 20 on a sunday for date nights also makes it great. The ambiance is something very rustic yet chic and I’ve never had it be very loud there. If you are looking for a quaint italian spot, there arent that many in the city, but try this one in the heart of uptown.

Date night, anniversary night, birthday night, ANY night — Rinata is our #1 go-​to restaurant. The atmosphere is cozy and romantic and I’m a sucker for complimentary low lighting. First, the bread… oh that bread doe. It’s hard to decide what’s better, the warm, perfectly buttery and seasoned flakey crust or the olive oil tapenade that comes with it. Don’t make me choose. My fiancé and I have made dinners out of the bread and Caesar salad on more than one occasion.
Everything is home made, including the pasta. The menu changes weekly and according to the season and is consistently phenomenal. The delicious spaghetti and meatballs are always on the menu, as is the molten chocolate cake. My mouth waters just thinking about Rinata!

Warm, intimate and thoughtfully executed, Rinanta is a lovely choice to satisfy your next Italian craving! The interior is dark but not dungeony, the soft lighting is calming to the senses and welcoming, espeically on the frigid day we visited. Greeted by a friendly host, we were seated right away instead of being made to wait for our entire party to arrive (I love when this happens!).
The menu is relatable but still authentic. In other words, you won’t get lost in a bunch of Italian stuffy vacabulary and then feel like an idiot asking your server what each item means in English. A single-​page menu with rotating seasonal flair and a nice variety of options, I was finding myself wanting to try many things!
We settled with the bruschetta with roasted wild mushroom, truffle white bean purée and prosciutto. Our group raved over each bite! I had the butternut squash ravioli. A seasonal option only available in the fall and early winter, it was as tasty as beautiful. I promise it won’t disappoint. The Molten Chocolate Cake deserves all your senses’ attention. The cake is dark, moist and balanced. AIl in all, everything was simply divine!

Just had dinner here on a Sunday night and great decision on our part! We didn’t realize that it was date night but such a great deal for 4 courses for just $ 20/​person. I had the mussels app, arugula salad, ragu ziti, and the sambuca tiramisu. Each course had their highlights but I really liked the mussels especially with the awesome house foccacia bread dipping into the sauce. And the fresh pasta just can’t be beat and the ragu that paired with it was well-​done too.
Great atmosphere that is comfortable and intimate with great service. Can’t wait to go back and try some more dishes like the sea bass entrée and the gnocchi. Highly recommend!

Amazing restaurant. We got the calamari, margarita pizza, and bucatini pasta, and scope of homemade ice cream. Everything tasted awesome.
The Calamari had amazing flavor and cooked just right. The sauce was so good we were dipping bread in it. The pizza was also amazing. You can really taste the fresh ingredients. The bucatini had really bold flavor and very savory. I read reviews about the ice cream and it definitely did not disappoint. Also, you probably think I’m crazy for saying this but they have really good tasting water! I’m from Seattle and Minnesota water tastes horrible to me so when I find a place that has good water, it is a big plus.